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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

From the makers of Coraline comes the story of Norman, a boy who must use his ability to see and speak with the dead to save his town from a centuries-old curse. In addition to spooky zombies, he’ll also have to take on mysterious ghosts, wily witches and, worst, of all, clueless grown-ups. But this young ghoul whisperer will soon find his paranormal abilities pushed to their otherworldly limits. Featuring the voice talents of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin and John Goodman, it’s a frightfully funny and magically thrilling adventure for the whole family in eye-popping stop-motion.

Amazon.com

Norman sees dead people. Heard that one before, right? The good news is that even though the cultural reference that entered our collective consciousness way back with The Sixth Sense is the conceptual spark, it's not a clichéd mark against ParaNorman. Neither is it some psychodramatic plot twist in this charming and ingenious stop-motion animated kids' story about a little boy who shares the world with the ghosts who are living all around him. The paranormal stuff is just a part of everyday life for sensitive, lonely Norman and it doesn't freak him out one bit. It started when his grandmother died and she decided to stick around for him. Even though his parents and teenage sister think it's a little weird that he believes she's still living with them, nothing could be more normal for Norman. But she's not the only one whose spirit is still roaming. Everywhere he goes, Norman makes friends and talks with the ghosts who float about all over the place, which not surprisingly makes him seem a little weird to all the other kids at school. Fortunately Norman makes friends with another living misfit named Neil, who believes in his unusual gift and remains a staunch sidekick even after the whole town is threatened by an ancient curse. It's this aged secret that turns out to be the cause for all the restless souls strolling around in the first place. The plot thickens considerably when the founding fathers rise from their graves as zombies (who everyone can see), and it falls to Norman to set things right. The threat they carry harks back to a centuries-old witch-hunt that put a harmless little girl named Aggie on trial by the tribunal now wandering around town in varying states of decrepitude and still cursed by their misdeed. The whole thing turns into a pretty intense piece of haunted horrors, with the burden falling on Norman to release Aggie's innocent spirit and send the zombies back to their graves before the town succumbs to her very real supernatural wrath. The action may get a little too scary for littler kids. There's lots of fire and brimstone, and even though the zombie antics are played for laughs, some of the characterizations border on the genuinely gruesome. But the style is wonderfully sophisticated (it comes from the company that produced Coraline), with terrifically anthropomorphized renderings of human and ghost/zombie figures alike. Everything feels wickedly baroque and shot through with a sustained creepiness that is kept mostly at bay with a script that packs plenty of gags. The voice performances are lively and vibrant, with a cast that includes John Goodman, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, and Elaine Stritch. When Norman faces off with Aggie in the dark and stormy finale, some children may be holding on to Mom and Dad tight (and they may be holding back), which is ultimately to ParaNorman's credit. Just as much credit goes to the fact that the story and design direction allows for the laughs to balance out the frights for both the parents and the kids. --Ted Fry

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

This movie is a BEAUTIFUL example of animation, especially stop motion animation, of the highest quality; a true work of art.

I am sad to see so many parents rating this film poorly for "inappropriate material". This movie has some of the BEST MATERIAL you should be teaching your kids! For one: There are no purely evil characters. There are characters who made bad choices, and feel regret. Too many films, especially film for children, paint humans as "purely good" or "purely evil" which only teaches them to judge their peers and elders harshly. This is a film which teaches children empathy towards their fellow humans. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

"Coraline" was amazing. Even though its box office success wasn't nearly as impressive as it should have been and you rarely hear anyone bring it up whenever conversations turn to animated films, "Coraline" catered to both children and adults. It had this extremely dark undertone; children were having their eyes replaced with buttons. That's so gloriously morbid for a children's flick. There was also mild cursing, a creepy alternate world where everyone had a mirror self (with button eyes, of course), and a woman with a massive chest that was only covered by sea shells in one particular scene. It was just so unusual and extraordinary. Laika Entertainment, the studio behind "Coraline," has brought us "ParaNorman," which is certainly in the same vein and travels a similar path to greatness.

"ParaNorman" is a stop-motion animated film that revolves around Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee); a young boy who can talk to dead people and is ridiculed because of it. Even his family doesn't believe in his gift, especially his dad Perry (Jeff Garlin) who refuses to think outside the box and gets angry at things he doesn't understand. Norman is picked on everyday by a thick-headed bully named Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and is mostly a loner until he gets to know a red headed boy named Neil (Tucker Albrizzi) who is bullied just as much as Norman but has learned to turn the other cheek.

A strange man named Mr. Prenderghast (John Goodman) claims to share Norman's gift and under a strange set of circumstances passes the duty of keeping the witch's curse at bay for another year to Norman.Read more ›

After seeing ParaNorman yesterday at the base theater, I have to say that I'm kind of surprised that there is such a controversy over the "message" of this movie. First, I don't think there was any type of nefarious message; the only message I gleaned from watching this movie was the usual "don't judge others" and "we're all different, we're all special" type of thing. Those are messages with which I agree. In fact, my husband and I instilled what ethics, morals and beliefs we felt were appropriate for our children with the hope that they would be productive members of society and independent thinkers. Doing such has made us confident that they are able to assess different situations and make good decisions on their own, regardless of what movies they watch, or books they read, etc.

In other words, we're pretty confident that they can watch a children's movie and still retain what we've taught them.

That said, I thought the movie was pretty good. I was kind of creeped out at some of the animation, which was very unique and well done. Some of the storyline was a bit dark, but I agree with other reviewers who noted that the darkness probably went over the heads of most children. Also, at this point I should admit that I was initially hesitant to take our daughter because I thought the premise had something to do with demons, but after looking up reviews and listening to my husband, I was wrong. My husband will now probably print out that last sentence and frame it, especially since he's the one who was... not... wrong. Erg!!

Anyway, moving swiftly along --

In my opinion, "ParaNorman" is a Halloween-type children's movie, and was enjoyable.Read more ›

This one definitely surprised me! In a year that was completely anti-bullying, one of the most prominent stories to feature this storyline was "ParaNorman" (from the makers of Coraline), which is about a little boy who can see ghosts. He doesn't mind being different but it's the living that he has a hard time dealing with. His most commonly used phrase is "I just want to be alone." However, when he is handed the task of preventing an infamous witch's curse on his town, he learns that having friends has its advantages. And when he confronts the witch at the climax of the film, no better dialogue has ever been written in regards to bullying and passing on hatred as your legacy. A fun film that's just as much of a life lesson for adults as it is for kids!

Wildly creative and technically terrific, there is much to admire in this animated play on traditional zombie films. But unlike “Coraline” – made by some of the same people – or the other Tim Burton/Henry Selick macabre animated works, there’s a certain lack of soul and emotion here that keeps it from climbing to the heights of those films.

There’s also an odd unevenness of tone. While it has a few really inspired visual and verbal gags, it switches a bit awkwardly back and forth between being almost over-earnest, and a kind of hip, ironic distanced humor. And much of the plot feels familiar and/or predictable.

Part of the struggle for me as an adult is that this is really made for ‘tweens. Too scary for little kids, it also limits the film a bit on the older side. It can’t work as easily for adults as some ‘kids films’ (ala Pixar, etc), where 8 years olds can enjoy it while 30 or 40 year olds can get it on a whole different level. I bet 11 year olds would flat out love this, but unlike the films mentioned earlier, I felt a bit left out of the fun. Still, it has it’s moments, both of humor and heart, and I’m glad I saw it. I just don’t know that I’d ever go back for seconds.